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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on July 1, 2009
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp131
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Experience-Dependent Gene Expression in Adult Visual Cortex

Jiabin Chen, Homare Yamahachi and Charles D. Gilbert

The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA

Address correspondence to Charles D. Gilbert. Email: gilbert{at}rockefeller.edu.

Experience-dependent plasticity of the adult visual cortex underlies perceptual learning and recovery of function following central nervous system lesions. To reveal the signal transduction cascades involved in adult cortical plasticity, we utilized a model of remapping of cortical topography following binocular retinal lesions. In this model, the lesion projection zone (LPZ) of primary visual cortex (V1) recovers visually driven activity by the sprouting of horizontal axonal connections originating from the cells in the surrounding region. To explore the molecular mechanism underlying this process, we used gene microarrays from an expression library prepared from Macaque V1. By microarray analysis of gene expression levels in the LPZ and the surrounding region, and subsequent confirmation with Quantitative Real-Time polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization, the participation of a number of genes was observed, including the Rho GTPase family. Its role in regulation of cytoskeleton assembly provides a possible link between the alteration of neural activity and cortical functional reorganization.

Key Words: adult visual plasticity • microarray • Rho GTPases


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